By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Pack used a balanced offense, despite being down two forwards, and utilized four different goal scorers to topple the Hershey Bears 4-2 on Friday night to earn their first win of the season at the XL Center.
The Pack attained something rare for them early in the season; they played with the lead.
They exited the first period up 2-0. Gustav Rydahl set the pace with activity on every shift. He scored the first goal by converting on a rebound of a Bobby Trivigno backhander right in front at 9:35 for his first North American pro goal.
Then the Pack lost Rydahl halfway thru the game on a PK-blocked shot with an upper-body injury.
“He was very effective early, engaged, and brought some physicality. During the first half of the period, he was on every shift. Unfortunately, we lost him and then Patrick (Khordorenko) and forced us to change our lines around.’ remarked head coach Kris Knoblauch.
Then, Tim Gettinger with a perfect tip by laying his stick blade down on the ice for Brandon Scanlin’s accurate left point shot. It beat Bears goalie Zach Furcale to the short side at 17:37.
The Pack played as solid a first period as they have all year, controlling the puck throughout.
“Brandon was one of the players who were on the outside looking (scratched Sunday) and played with purpose and brought a lot to our lineup,” said Knoblauch.
The Pack extended their lead to 3-0 on a four-on-three power play for a 1:42 goal by captain Jonny Brodzinski as all four players touched the puck. Ty Emberson tossed Will Cullye’s pass over to Brodzinski.
Parked atop the left-wing circle, he took a Ty Emberson pass and one-timed a rocket of a shot that beat Furcale again to the short side, going high at 6:30 for the 3-0 advantage.
The Bears used a well-executed power play to get on the scoreboard.
Four of the five Bears on the ice had touches of the puck as they passed it around the horn from left point to right point to down to the lower right corner as Henrik Borgstrom took Hendrix Lapierre’s feed right to Ethan Frank, who won the one-on-one battle as Elson dove back to try to break-up the play at 14:05. They beat Louie Domingue for his second of the season.
“For the most part, we played well, but the play leading up to the penalty , we had turnovers. We can’t accept and have to eliminate those,” remarked Knoblauch.
In the third period, the Pack kept their foot on the gas pedal as Elson, on a late-breaking two-on-one early, tried to feed Karl Henriksson, who had missed the net on a chance at 4:48 that slipped off his stick.
Bobby Trivigno, who didn’t play last weekend, scored the fourth tally on an odd man two-on-one break.
With a far-side backhander over Furcale’s glove, Trivigno converted Elson’s lead pass for his first of the season and capped his strongest game. Elson picked his second helper of the contest and leads the Pack in scoring with five points.
“We had to rely on other players. We had to double shift our veterans and younger players and they did the job. Turner, is so versatile, he can play center or wing left or right side. He was steady as you go and can do what you needed.”
Elson is playing out East for the first time.
“We know we are too good to not have a win. Once,we lost those two guys, veterans, and the younger players. We realized we were going to have to do more, and we took the extra load, and we scored the goals we needed. I know nothing about any of players or team beyond the Pwnnsylvania border, but the players and staff have been so helpful it’s making my transition easier.”
Trivigno had his most solid game to date and earned high praise from Knoblauch.
“T was doing all the right things. He and Scanlin, along with others gave us the minutes and play we needed. He got ice time and made use of it. He was a guy on the outside looking in. He wasn’t a lock for the lineup, but he had a very good week of practice, and it paid off tonight for us. He wanted to play. He wanted the puck.”
NOTES:
The team plays Charlotte for the third time in the young season Saturday night.
Dylan Garand is expected to start, but Knoblauch didn’t want to anoint him. He made no committment.
“It’s our intention, but I have to talk it over with our goalie coach (former Yale Bulldog Jeff Malcolm) first before we decide.”
Khordorenko’s injury, like Rydahl, was being evaluated post-game. However, it was severe enough from the initial examination for Knoblauch to state awful news early.
“It looks like it’ll be long-term upper body injury.”
Then he remarked with fatalistic dark humor.
“Now we’re down two centers. We’ll likely lose Jonny Brodzinski next, another to recall knowing our luck,” said Knoblauch with a faraway stare, appealing to the hockey gods to ease his burden.
The Caps’ Alexander Alexeev is down for a rehab stint. He wore #27.
Former Springfield Falcon Sonny Milano played a strong game and is expected to go up after this weekend of three in three plays. Then, the team heads back home to PA to host Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Saturday and tackle Lehigh Valley on Sunday.
Ben Harpur cleared waivers and was in the lineup for the Pack.
Rangers declared Vitali Kravtsov healthy enough to play and made their Western road trip. Ex-Pack Filip Chytil was left back after not feeling good for the morning skate.
As per the CBA rules, Julien Gauthier made the trip and has ten games or 30 days to be put on waivers again.
Knoblauch remarked that it had been a day or two into training camp Louie Domingue might not have made it thru waivers.
Last year, the Wolf Pack were unbeaten (3-0-0) at home against the Bears and 5-1 in the season series.
LINES:
Cullye-Brodzinski-Smith
Rydahl-Elson-Trivigno
Gettinger-Fritz-Pajuniemi
Khordorenko-Henriksson-Korczak
Harpur-Welinski
Skinner-Scanlon
Emberson-Hillman
The Director of Hockey Operations is Matt Harlow, the son of ex-New Haven Nighthawk and current Edmonton scout Scott Harlow. His father relayed to him how tough hockey was early in his career, “My father, how as a third round pick, he was booed in Montreal at the draft in the old Forum because he was an American. A third rounder. Can you believe that?”
His father had a harrowing experience in Sherbrooke early in his career. Upon his trade to New Haven once he crossed the border at Plattsburgh, NY. He got gas, fell to his knees, and kissed the ground.”
New York Rangers Assistant Director of Player Development Tanner Glass was in attendance.
